PHILADELPHIA — Brett Brown has a leg-up on his rookie point guard, in that the 76ers’ first-year coach once played a game at the Boston Garden. The same can’t be said for Hamilton, Mass., native Michael Carter-Williams.

So Brown kept it short and sweet when he told reporters after Tuesday’s practice what kind of advice he’d planned to offer up to Carter-Williams upon making his homecoming Wednesday night against the Celtics.

“Have a blast,” Brown said. “Be so proud of your accomplishments, go back there and enjoy the experience of playing where you grew up, now as an NBA starting point guard. I want him to enjoy the experience.”

Carter-Williams doesn’t have any special accommodations waiting for him when he gets home, he said. The 22-year-old said he would have dinner Tuesday night with family members, upon the Sixers’ flight landing at Logan International. Other than that, it’s all business.

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The Sixers’ meeting with the Celtics represents Carter-Williams first opportunity to play at Boston Garden. In his sophomore season at Syracuse, he and the Orange played the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight rounds of the NCAA Tournament there, though Carter-Williams did not check in to either game.

“It is what it is,” said Carter-Williams, who recalled the Garden as “a great atmosphere. They were good. The crowd was great.”

No doubt, it will be a comforting roadtrip also for Nerlens Noel, the Sixers’ injured rookie center who hails from Malden, Mass.

As is the case with those two, it will be an equally important game for Brown, a native of South Portland, Maine, who routinely took trips with his parents into Boston as a youth to watch the Celtics. Brown spoke glowingly, even during his introductory press conference last summer, about procuring tickets for Sixers/Celtics games. Brown also played at the Garden a handful of times as an undergrad at Boston University.

“In the seats I had,” Brown said, “you’d look up five feet to the roof and see the moss and the stalagmites or stalactites. I don’t remember which one goes up or down. You’re in an old, dingy building that had so much character.”

Part of that character, as Brown recalled, was the frustrating charm of the Garden’s parquet floor.

“I played there a few times during my Boston University days,” he said. “You’d play in Christmas tournaments – BC, Northeastern, UMass. You’d be flying up the court, dribbling and you’d hit one of the dead squares and you’re upset because it’s a turnover with nobody around and (the ball) just wouldn’t come up. It’s funny.

“You started learning, as a point guard, where you could go for steals. Sometimes, with other point guards you were guarding were going to have trouble with the floor. You’d try to manipulate it and try to take it as an advantage.”

The NBA games at the Garden to which Brown held tickets were far more entertaining and far more meaningful in the standings than what’s expected Wednesday. The Celtics and the Sixers are stuck in fourth- and fifth-place, respectively, in the Atlantic Division standings.

Still…

“It’s nice to be home,” Carter-Williams said, grinning.

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Conditioning appears to be “the main hurdle” in Arnett Moultrie’s return to the court, said Brown.

The second-year forward has yet to play this season due to a pre-training camp left ankle injury that required surgery. Moultrie’s ankle “is almost perfect,” Brown said. Getting the 6-11, 249-pounder into basketball-ready shape is the next task, though Brown added there is no timetable for Moultrie’s eventual season debut.

“He’s doing OK. He’s continuing to get in shape. That’s the main hurdle,” Brown said after Tuesday’s practice. “The ankle is almost perfect. It’s not the ankle. We’re helping him achieve some fitness goals from a conditioning standpoint to a weight standpoint, and he’s moving along. We hope to see him a heck of a lot sooner rather than later.”

Moultrie has only been practicing with his teammates for the last few weeks. His first 5-on-5 practice was Dec. 31 in Denver.

The Mississippi State product averaged 3.7 points and 3.1 rebounds in 47 games in his rookie season.

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Rather than sit the bench in Boston, Lorenzo Brown got minutes in Newark, Del.

The Sixers’ reserve point guard was assigned to the Delaware 87ers for the fifth time. Brown did not travel with the team to Beantown. Instead, the 23-year-old headed south on I-95 for Tuesday’s game against Austin.

Monday, Brown was assigned to the D-League and recalled to the Sixers in the same day. He played 30 minutes in a morning tipoff with the Sevens, then got in for one possession of the Sixers’ nightcap.